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Friday, May 10, 2013

Ubuntu 13.04 Review

The new Ubuntu Linux distribution, 13.04, aka Raring Ringtail, is ready to go, and for most users, it may be all the desktop they need.Ubuntu 13.04 will be supported for 9 months and includes cutting-edge new features that make your music, videos, documents and apps much easier to access.

Canonical has changed its approach and process for testing and developing the new Ubuntu 13.04 distribution. Known as Raring Ringtail, the distribution recently completed the Beta 1 testing phase and a beta preview was released. However, the creators have not been exactly open with releasing milestone versions even though the distribution is getting through them with ease. This approach was outlined by Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, near the end of last year.

Even during the alpha testing, the company refrained from releasing any versions of the software for the people to check out before they make a decision regarding whether they want to use it or not. There were some peripheral releases for distributions like Kubuntu and Edubuntu but none at all for the Raring Ringtail. This deprives webmasters and users from using the software before it is released in its final form in the near future.

This approach is being called the ‘skunkworks’ approach. However, it doesn’t appear as though Canonical is doing anything different from the past. The only noticeable change is that fewer milestone versions of the upcoming distributions are being released. This is also the case with the beta 1 milestone. You cannot use the main beta 1 version of the distribution. The only way you can catch a glimpse into the distribution is through variations like Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu.

True, many hard-core Linux users have turned against Ubuntu in recent years. Or, to be more precise, they turned against it when Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical, switched from the GNOME 2.x desktop to its Unity desktop interface. They have a point. Unity doesn't give Linux experts the kind of control over the operating system that they get from desktops such as KDE,MATE, and Cinnamon.

That's very clear in Ubuntu 13.04. While this new version doesn't offer a lot of new features, it has done a nice job of cleaning and speeding up the ones it had. In particular, I noticed how this works on a review system, a 2008-vintage Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor, has 6GBs of RAM, and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. Unity itself was much faster than before on the same box.

Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail has completed the beta 1 milestone testing stage but this time around, it wouldn’t result in a milestone version being released. Users have to wait for the release of the final beta version.